Alternate Realities
by Frostmourne
Summary: [SiriusHermione]When they discovered a supposed murder in Hogwarts some twenty years ago while searching for a link to Sirius, Hermione, plagued by weird dreams, never expected to end up in the past, dealing with many things like prejudice and love.
1. A Mystery in Hogwarts

**Author's Note:** Okay… a try at Harry Potter especially a Sirius/Hermione pairing yay! I hope you like it and give me some comments. I promise I'd get Sirius in here soon. I just need to establish some things first so it doesn't get too confusing as the story goes on.

**Disclaimer: **JKR owns the characters and I am not making money out of this.

**Summary: **When they discovered a supposed murder in Hogwarts some twenty years ago while searching for a link to Sirius, Hermione, plagued by weird dreams, never expected to end up in the past, dealing with many things like prejudice and love. **(SiriusHermione)**

* * *

**Alternate Realities**

* * *

_The roughness of the wall felt soothing under her lightly gliding fingertips. It gave her the feeling of safety somehow with its rough and yet strong surface. She looked on ahead and saw the corridor, dim and yet so familiar that it was comforting. This was home now, a place that would protect her from anything._

_The sound of distant footsteps startled her for a moment and she could feel her heart pounding in a rush. But when she heard familiar voices, her fingers left the wall and she hurried her trek further and further into the dim corridor…_

a-a-a-

"Oh I know," said a female voice drowning in girly giggles.

Hermione shut her eyes tighter and groaned slightly. It was way too early to hear her roommates giggle and gossip about whoever and whatever there was in school. But what could she expect? Sighing in frustration as the giggling went on, she opened her eyes and glared at the curtains, where she presumed, her roommates would have been talking on the other side of.

Minutes passed and her patience was thinning. _Would they ever leave? _She thought with irritation.

More giggling and she was all ready to draw away the curtains and show them how irate she was. But then, as if sensing her hostility, her roommates giggled for the last time and exited the room noisily, their voices growing fainter and fainter moments later.

"Honestly," she murmured angrily as she sat up and made to get ready to face the day.

a-a-a-

"Why the glum face?" Ginny asked the moment she sat down at the Gryffindor table.

Hermione frowned even more and scanned both sides of the long table, her eyes stopping on two loudly giggling girls namely Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil.

By the way Hermione was coldly regarding the two distant Gryffindors, the redhead Ginny could just about rewrite the event that had probably occurred earlier that morning and she gave a slight cough, hoping to distract the frizzy-haired Hermione's attention away from the two unsuspecting Gryffindors. Unfortunately, the cough failed and she was about to say something random when she spotted two familiar boys making their way towards them.

Sitting heavily beside Hermione, Harry, a messy-haired young man, regarded her knowingly. "Bad morning again?"

At this, the brunette looked away from the two Gryffindors and gave her attention to her friends, noting that Ron's red hair was windblown. "Quidditch," she said flatly.

Ron grinned and continued piling food on his plate. "Not really. We were just out flying."

Harry nodded, his messy hair flapping in the air at the action before he reached out and started to follow Ron's lead.

Soon enough, a conversation was struck and some of the nearby Gryffindors dipped in. However, Hermione, in her foul mood, could not force herself to partake as her mind drifted randomly along, depending on what she her eyes caught.

When she settled her eyes on her grinning friends however, her thoughts took on the darker side of things as her mind unwillingly recalled what happened in fifth year in the Department of Mysteries. Her insides clenched painfully and she was even more reminded of the loss they suffered; Sirius was gone… It must still be unbearable for Harry, having lost his last link to his parents.

She thought of how she would feel if Voldemort succeeded in his deranged dream of eradicating those who were not of pureblood origin and shuddered visibly. No, she would die first before she allowed that to happen and she knew her friends would too.

Her eyes traveled to the Slytherin table, flying over the faces of her pureblooded schoolmates. Did they even care about what would happen? A bitter tastein her mouth told her that most of them would be probably glad to see the end of _this _world where muggles and muggleborns like her were existent.

"Hermione?"

She frowned reflexively at having been interrupted and looked at Harry. "Sorry, what was it you were saying?"

A frown marred his features. "Are you sure you're feeling well?"

"I am," she answered, barely catching her sigh. "We'd better get to class," she added absently.

They gave her an odd look but then slowly shook their heads.

"What is it?"

"Really, Hermione, it's Sunday! We know you love classes but this is just ridiculous!" Ron muttered.

She forced a smile, embarrassed and at the same time worried when she realized that Harry was watching her closely. "Woke up in the wrong side of bed," she said, trying to sound both irate and amused. "Well, I think I'll go to the library for some light reading."

And before anyone could comment, she stood up and nearly ran towards the massive double doors of the Great Hall, her feet leading her to the library.

Madam Pince gave her a sharp look as she hurriedly entered but she ignored it and sat down on the most secluded portion she could find, wondering why she fled.

_What's wrong with me?_ She thought, slightly frustrated at how touchy she seemed these past days. _I'm thinking too much, it's getting into me. Yes, that's it!_

"Hermione?"

She jumped slightly on her seat and cursed herself for it as she turned her head slightly and saw that one of her best friends were standing near her and looking at her with a telltale frown that she dreaded.

"Harry," she said with a tinge of panic.

"Are you sure—"

"I'm fine," she assured hurriedly.

He nodded but moved and took a seat beside her, turning to her direction and observing her carefully that she grew nervous even when she knew that she did nothing wrong. Perhaps it was the way his eyes were looking at her intently that made her feel as ifshe did something she should not have done.

"What is it?" She said, quite unnerved.

He kept quiet for a while. "You're edgy lately."

She sighed and looked away. "I know."

A nod – "Is something wrong?"

She held her silence, searching for an appropriate answer but found nothing. "I'm not sure." Her right forefinger began tracing random patterns on the table. "Really. I don't… I don't understand what's wrong with me these days. Maybe I'm just thinking too much."

Again, he nodded and she wished he would just go away and leave her. There was nothing here; he was barking up the wrong tree, so to speak and it was adding up to whatever unfounded tension she was experiencing.

"He's important to me to," Harry said suddenly and so quietly that at first she thought she just imagined him saying it. "And I'm scared of what's to come, too."

She looked up and suddenly felt guilty. He knew her way too much, even more than she knew herself that he was able to determine head on what truly was bothering her. Really she had no clue of what was inside her – they were all a mixture of everything – but when he mentioned it, she felt that he hit the core of her jumbled emotions. Her guilt added to the mass of jumbles inside her; to help her and put her at peace, he said his thoughts and pains in the fewest of words.

"Harry…"

"I still wonder why I couldn't do anything when I'm supposed to be the hero," he continued bitterly, looking at her with a greatly pained expression.

Her guilt increased and she touched his hand with hers. "I'm sorry. I didn't"

"We're all thinking about it anyway, it doesn't matter." Then he forced a smile. "The day's good. Everyone's outside." And he stood up, leaving quite as unexpectedly as he had arrived earlier.

Hermione closed her eyes and was irritated at her self. Now that she knew what her thoughts were centered on, it didn't make anything better like what she hoped for before. In fact, it made her feel worse because the price of knowing it head on was that she had just subjected a best friend of hers into pain again as if he hadn't gone through too much pain already.

_Merlin, I'm stupid!_

At the thought, she crossed her arms on the table and buried her face on it, closing her eyes fiercely against the guilt that she couldn't help but feel. She was there when Sirius died, wasn't she? She was supposed to be the best in their class and she wasn't able to help.

The thought made her even more worried of the future. Would she remain this useless?

a-a-a-

_The hall was almost too dark to venture into and yet she walked barefooted through it, her fingertips grazing the rough surface of the wall beside her. The rough feeling gave her the reinforcing thought of how strong the walls were and how much safety they offered to everyone living within them._

_She heard whispers and she turned sharply into the darkness behind her, narrowing her eyes and yet not seeing anything at all. But she felt them, their presence feeling stronger as they came closer. And she fled, yet again, slipping past the secret passages that led back to where she should be at this time of the night._

a-a-a-

Her friends' laughter was all around her and she smiled at them as they talked about so many things that must have slipped past her the earlier weeks since they went backto school. Perhaps they swept past her because she had been too busy trying to find out what was wrong with her.

_And to think I'm supposed to be the best,_ she thought wryly, again remembering how easily Harry had given the answer to her what-is-wrong-with-me questions.

Again, her friends' laughter invoked a smile on her face and as she gazed at each of them, she silently thought of how much a family they had become these past years. And her mind then drifted to her muggle parents, wistfully remembering how much they loved her before they knew she was gifted with magic.

Thinking about it, she remembered seeing this certain twinge in their eyes when they talked to her about what she really wanted to be – a witch or just like them, an ordinary person. She had been too young to realize that they already knew her answer and that that twinge in their eyes were of pain; they didn't want to let her go.

Her youth had made everything seemed so easy and she gave them a sincere answer. The twinge deepened more and she simply shrugged it off then. And when they were hugging her before she went off through the barrier of platform 9 ¾, they hugged her so fiercely as if they were never going to see her again. Perhaps they were afraid of not being there; they had always been guiding her every step of the way before then. Or perhaps they simply knew of the dangers that would hurtle her so much earlier into maturity.

It broke her heart now because she would never be able to turn her back on the lurking danger and put her parents at ease; doing so would endanger them in turn and that was something she never wanted to happen if she had a say on it.

And now, her family here was something that reminded her of her muggle parents, who loved her even more fiercely despite the fact that she was different. They love her, too, even as she was a muggleborn, a mudblood. And for that, she would do anything for them, fight by their side until there wasn't any life in her anymore.

"I did not!" Ron's voice retorted, his face a famous Weasley red.

Hermione smiled further even when she had no idea what they were talking about. Even when she was still bothered by the darker side of things brought about by the war Voldemort would bring, she swore she would never burden her friends. She'd keep her worries and musings to her self, especially away from Ron who was too easily troubled, and away from Harry who was dealing with too much as it is.

a-a-a-

_Cool and comforting, her fingertips grazed on the surface of the wall as she continued to walk barefooted through the dimly-lit corridor._

_Home… this was home…_

_And for a moment, her chest tightened in pain at a memory of soft voices telling her it would be alright no matter what. But her eyes stung with tears that refused to fall, seemingly sharing her stubbornness._

_Everything was not alright; they left her._

_Her fingers pressed on more insistently on the wall and she was comforted by the rough surface. Her bare feet walked on simply because she was told that she was safe here and in her desperate want to believe those soft voices in her memory, she managed to develop the right state of mind to truly believe that she was safe, no matter how alone she was…_

a-a-a-

She tried to school her features to appear as if she was surprised. "No, there isn't, Professor."

The Headmaster of Hogwarts looked at her with eyes that seemed to see everything. She would've fidgeted but the voices of Harry and Ron echoing in the corridor distracted her, not that she wasn't glad. On the contrary, she was extremely grateful to them.

"I should get going, Professor," she said as she turned around and walked towards where her friends were just rounding a corner.

For the life of her, she couldn't believe that Dumbledore would be asking her if there was something she wished to tell him. What would she tell him anyway; what did he expect? There really wasn't anything wrong with her apart from her constant reflection of the threatening situation the Dark Lord posed and what effects it had. Well, there were the dreams but she doubted it meant anything. After all, they couldn't be visions; impossible. She did not have any gift in Divination, not that she cared. The subject was positively—

"Rubbish."

"What?" Ron muttered as both he and Harry came close.

"Oh nothing," Hermione said, truthfully meaning it. "I was just thinking, well, saying actually how rubbish Divination is."

a-a-a-

_The light was so dim that one would trip if he or she dared to tread through that corridor. But she knew her way by heart and she didn't mind the dark too much. This darkness was better than the darkness outside the walls of the castle; this kind of dark could be chased away easily by conjuring a light._

_Rough and solid, the walls caressed her fingers back, giving her reassurance that she was safe. She walked on then, her silent and light footsteps bringing her closer to her destination._

_Time seemed unable to touch her but then voices familiar to her threatened to break her serene steps. They were coming her way and she was urging herself to walk faster._

"_Hurry up…" one male voice said followed by other hushed voices that seemed to grow closer and louder to her._

"Hermione, come on," another one whispered near her ear.

She groaned and opened her eyes, staring straight at a set of startling green eyes. "Harry," she whispered back with grogginess infusing her voice. "How—"

"I flew over the staircase," he whispered urgently,casting his famous pleading eyes at her that got her into many misadventures over the years. "You promised…"

She sighed with barely suppressed frustration before sliding out of bed and following him silently out of the room, down the girls' dormitory staircase while he was on his broom, and on to the empty Gryffindor common room where Ron was already waiting impatiently.

Harry nodded at Ron and both boys darted towards the portrait hole, followed by a now wide-awake Hermione.

a-a-a-

"Alright," Hermione whispered as they entered the Restricted Section of the Library. "Silencio," she murmured, casting the spell around the area surrounding them by repeating the spell at every possible angle.

"I hope that works," Ron said, eyeing the place they entered from.

"It better," the brunette said quickly, turning to the books along the shelves and beginning her search.

They were there to look for something regarding the Dark Arts that might possibly give them a chance to talk to Sirius. A few days ago, Hermione had unknowingly promised Harry that she'd help them search. With irritation, she knew that she should have been listening first before saying yes. Why couldn't she have disappeared into her strange dream some other time, like in the night?

The dream…

"Hermione?"

A hand on her shoulder and she dropped the screaming book on the floor, whipping her head around sharply that her neck hurt. "Yes?" She asked weakly, wondering why Harry was giving her a peculiar look.

He glanced at the book positioned near her feet and pointed his wand at it, repeating her spell from before and picking it up to look at it. His eyes scanned the opened pages and Hermione noticed a deep frown forming on his face. A bit later, Ron had joined them and when she couldn't take it, she made a motion to grab the book and read for herself why her friends were reading rather earnestly.

"After the death, the room had been concealed with many enchantments to prevent the event from happening again," Harry muttered, stopping Hermione from grabbing the book. He looked up then. "Hogwarts has had a death aside from Myrtle."

"What?"

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed. Apparently, he was still reading beside Harry. "It says here that the student had been possibly blown to bits that they only found blood on the floor and some ripped bloodied robes!"

"What?" Hermione repeated, wondering what happened to her extensive vocabulary. She grabbed the book and read a page, her eyes widening. "We shouldn't be—"

"Look at the time mentioned, Hermione," Harry muttered gravely. "That year, my parents were still in Hogwarts in their sixth year."

She suddenly felt the hairs at her arms stand on end and she had the strangest feeling she couldn't really understand. Glancing down at the book, she turned the page and read on, telling her friends that it had been suspected that the Dark Lord had something to do with the incident.

"Her parents were Death Eaters," she said almost too quietly. "They died."

"Good," Harry said in an angry voice that neither Ron nor Hermione could really blame.

"No, Harry. Her parents were on Dumbledore's side." And she looked up grimly. "They were spies for Dumbledore…"

Ron was about to say something but Harry suddenly grabbed them, pulling the invisibility cloak over them and dragging them out of the Restricted Section, barely making it before Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, made its way towards the said section.

Ever since the incident at the Department of Mysteries, Harry had seemingly taken it upon himself to be more perceptive of what was happening to his surroundings and both Ron and Hermione were thankful at the moment for that. They hurriedly entered a random classroom and put a basic locking spell on the door.

"If it has something to do with Voldemort, I'm willing to get to the bottom of it," Harry said immediately after they finished locking the door. "Because if _he_ did something to her _in _Hogwarts, she must bereally important that he wanted to get rid of her that much."

"Does the book say something about her other than mysteriously getting blown to pieces?" Ron inquired, looking morbidly interested somehow.

Hermione looked down and read for a while, shaking her head. "No. The other things here talks about the terror during that time – people disappearing… you know…" she finished uncomfortably. When she looked up, she dreaded the determined expression that was on Harry's face. Her dread escalated when she spied Ron giving her a glance that seemed to tell her that there was no talking him out of this either. _Honestly! I am going crazy as it is with worry and now…_ "Alright," she conceded to their unvoiced question, greatly wondering why she agreed.

And so the following days found them sneaking around at night – after Prefects duties for both Hermione and Ron – using the Marauders Map, looking for information in the Restricted Section and snooping around Hogwarts trying to determine where the hidden room was. It almost felt like the time they were trying to find the Chamber of Secrets back when they were in their second year.

But their search had been fruitless. That was until Luna Lovegood caught them sneaking off one night. It was strange how Filch could not detect them when they used the Invisibility Cloak while Luna could easily pinpoint exactly where they were standing.

"What are you three looking for?" She asked, looking in their direction.

Under the Invisibility Cloak, they stared at each other and kept quiet, hoping that Luna was actually just talking to herself. But when the Ravenclaw continued to look at them, Harry pulled the cloak away.

Luna's silvery gray eyes continued to look at them thoughtfully, waiting for their answer. But when none came, she turned her eyes to the book Hermione was clutching close to her chest. She squinted her eyes ever so slightly and then nodded, once again eyeing them thoughtfully.

The silence stretched and Ron was switching his weight from one foot to the other, making the impression that he really was uncomfortable about them standing in a corridor in the middle of the night were Filch could just easily spot them.

"You're searching for her death place," the dirty-blonde girl finally said, earning from the three surprised looks.

"H-how," Ron began to sputter, unnerved.

"I read that book," she said simply as if she was stating that it was night time.

Harry frowned. "Do you know where it is?"

She looked at them serenely, looking as if she was contemplating something that involved them. Finally, she turned around and walked away. The three looked at each other, before Harry walked forward, following their strange, but faithful Ravenclaw friend who never once abandoned them even when they were fighting against Death Eaters just months earlier.


	2. Unusual Behaviors and Dreams

**Author's Note:** Thanks to **Moon, jasmin rose, Rane2920072**, and **EnchantingFreak** for the comment. I hope you like this chapter and leave some comments. I really appreciate it and helps me formulate the next scenes I should put in.

**Disclaimer: **JKR owns the characters and I am not making money out of this.

**Summary: **When they discovered a supposed murder in Hogwarts some twenty years ago while searching for a link to Sirius, Hermione, plagued by weird dreams, never expected to end up in the past, dealing with many things like prejudice and love. **(SiriusHermione)**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Unusual Behaviors and Dreams**

* * *

They were looking at a room with only one large window positioned so high that it was near the ceiling. The moon illuminated the middle of the room that could probably be a classroom for roughly thirty students. Apart from the walls and seemingly centuries old tapestries hanging all around the room, it was bare. 

After they had followed Luna into many secret passages that they didn't know she was aware of, they had come to this room, expecting to see many incriminating things that could help them visualize what could have happened here many years earlier. But they were disappointed to say the least at what was before them.

"What now?" Hermione asked softly, afraid at the expression of anger on Harry's face.

Ron did not even dare to talk. And Luna was just behind them, standing near the door where they came in from.

Harry didn't reply as he walked around the room, looking at the very much worn out tapestries that had barely perceptible stains on them. Hermione followed suit and pushed on one of the walls after handing Ron the book she had been holding. Soon, the four of them were searching the room as time passed them by.

When they were all about to give up, Hermione was having strange feelings about the place and when she saw Luna looking at her thoughtfully, she was unsettled for some reason. So when she walked towards Ron, she tripped on her own feet and ended up sprawled on the floor, her face all but eating one end of the old and up-to-the-floor-length tapestry. She coughed from the dust as she withdrew her head but upon reaching for her face, pulled a very old parchment sticking to her cheek.

She didn't have time to read it however, as Ron pulled her up and ran after Harry, who was dragging a still serene-looking Luna through the door and back to the secret passage they used to get there. Seconds later, Filch's footsteps could be heard racing towards the room they had just left.

"Sorry," Hermione murmured.

Ron barely heard her as he continued to pull her along. But amidst the dark, Hermione could've sworn she can still see Luna looking at her thoughtfully. And it scared her, more than Harry's probable anger at having found nothing that could solve the mystery most likely connected to Voldemort.

a-a-a-

_The cold floor was not at all disturbing. It even made her smile slightly at the fact that she could not feel the coldness when she was running about the castle. But running around didn't give her the chance to feel the roughness of the stone wall of the corridors and so she avoided running…_

_But now that the familiar sounds of some students she knew were again behind her, she shook her head and began to go faster, her speed coming to strange figures and her stealth improving. She could not afford to have one of them catch her, especially not when he was in a rampage of some sort that she would inevitably have to fight him. No, fighting was bad… it causes too much pain… takes away too many lives…_

a-a-a-

"Remember to add only a few drops of the liquid essence of belladonna…"

Snape's voice droned on in the background but for the first time, Hermione's mind could not settle on their Potion's lesson, whatever it was. Her mind kept going back to her strange dream and the feelings she felt when she was having them. She could not really understand it but every time she had the dreams of corridors, it would always be dark and she would always be touching the stone walls. It just struck her as unusual that she would seek comfort in touching rough walls...

"Hermione," a sharp whisper from someone behind her brought her out of her musing and she quickly fixed her eyes on Snape, hoping that he hadn't noticed her drifting off. When he continued talking, she inclined her head slightly to her right in the hopes of catching a look at Neville, who was sitting behind her. She was slightly amused that he had the courage now to go about whispering in Snape's classes when he was so afraid of their terrorizing Potions professor. Perhaps the experience of dealing with numerous Death Eaters had had something to do with it.

Then, she felt Neville push a parchment by her elbow and that called her off her reflection. With her eyes trained on Snape once again, she took hold of the parchment, putting it in her pocket immediately when Snape stopped talking suddenly; their Potions professor's black eyes swept across the room in a calculating manner for a while before he continued to talk.

She waited for a few seconds before pulling the parchment out, her eyes lingering on their professor for a few more seconds before she attempted to read the parchment. But before she could read it, Snape stopped talking again and she immediately stuffed the parchment inside her bag. Her hand then went in search for her quill and she had the strange sensation of feeling as if she had pocketed her quill earlier on. With a frown, she reached inside her pocket and felt her quill there. She was just about to pull it out when—

"Would you care to read the parchment, Miss Granger?"

Snickers were heard from all over the room and she looked up to see that her Slytherin classmates were grinning at her while Snape proceeded to approach her.

Her heart pounded and she immediately pulled her hand out of the pocket, her mind frantically trying to remember if the reason why her hand was in there was because she was putting the parchment there. But before she could remember, Snape was standing beside her desk, looking at her with cold eyes that seemed to command her to reveal the parchment.

"Professor—"

"The parchment, Miss Granger," he cut her off immediately, earning more snickers from the Slytherins and glares from the Gryffindors.

Before she could argue again, he pointed his wand to her robe's pocket and in a dull tone murmured, "Accio parchment."

It all happened so fast that before she could blink, the parchment flew out of her pocket and went to Snape's waiting palm. His eyes turned even colder if that was still possible before he eyed the parchment steadily. Everything went silent and still until finally, Snape opened his mouth and read the message for everyone to hear.

"Meet us in the common room at exactly midnight." He looked up and fixed her a very frosty glare albeit his face didn't even adopt any expression. "Off to get into trouble, Miss Granger?" His eyes moved towards Harry and then towards Ron before returning to her. "I could save you the effort – detention Miss Granger, Mister Potter and Mister Weasley; eight sharp."

And then he swept away towards the front of the class to announce that they would be brewing the discussed potion the following meeting before entering his office and shutting the door with a loud bang. The Slytherins seemed to pay no heed to that and was still casting her mocking grins that irritated her so much that she thought she could hear her mind roaring with a strange sound usually attributed to an angry wild cat.

But everyone started moving and murmuring as they left the classroom and she could not bring herself to care as she stood up and irately pushed her things back in her bag, whipping around immediately thereafter to look at Harry and Ron who were both looking at her with scowls plastered on their faces.

"That," Ron began angrily. "Was bloody well–"

"Humiliating," she finished in the same angry tone, not caring if Snape heard them. She looked at Harry and waited for him to say something that reflected his anger but was surprised when he said the last thing she expected him to say.

"He didn't read the entire message," he said, his frown deepening.

Ron seemed as surprised as she was for he looked at Harry as if he grew another head.

"He knows," Harry finished, clearly telling them that he was scowling not because he was angry but because he thought Snape was on to them. "I said something about researching possible spells that could've blown _the _student to pieces."

Hermione noticed Ron opening his mouth and then closing it as if he did not know what to say. Turning back to fix the closed office door a bewildered look before swinging her bag on her shoulder, she finally pulled her friends out of the classroom. At that moment, she realized that they still had much time to brew the potion because she was sure that Snape had only been giving them instructions as he usually did every potions class before they started to brew whatever discussed potion.

"I think Harry's right," she said slowly. "He dismissed us so early…"

Ron once again looked surprised. "Oh yeah. I wonder what made him do that."

"Obviously," Harry said grimly. "The message touched a nerve. He must know something about the only dead student blown to bits here."

"He wasn't a teacher here—"

"Exactly, Hermione," the raven-haired boy cut in. "He wasn't. Because he was a student here just like my parents."

"You can't be saying that he knew that girl and sold her out to…" Ron trailed off, sharing Hermione's horror-filled look.

"He was a Death Eater, wasn't he?" Harry asked sharply. "And then he changed sides. Don't you ever wonder why?"

Hermione eyed Harry carefully and thought about what he said. Despite hating their Potions professor for being unfair to the Gryffindors, she could not really think of him as the murdering type, especially not a student who would have his fellow student dead. But somehow, at the look that Harry was giving off and at Ron's convinced face, she felt something strange… She could not be sure if she believed Harry entirely as well or if there was something else though.

"What should we do then?" Ron asked uncertainly. "We've got detention with him."

Harry shrugged but his face was crowding with determination that said of one thing: they would get to the bottom of things, even if it got them in trouble.

a-a-a-

When they arrived at the dungeons at eight o clock sharp, Snape was nowhere to be found, even his office was empty. They looked at each other, wondering what was going on but before any of them could voice anything, Snape entered the classroom and looked at them coldly.

"Clean the classroom without wands and then be off," he said coldly, eyeing each one of them carefully for seconds at end that it made them uncomfortable. After a while, he swept into his office and shut the door loudly.

"Well," Ron began. "I think that went rather well."

"If you mean without further punishments, yes I agree," Hermione said, sighing and trying to get rid of the strange unease at the pit of her stomach. Something about Snape stirred an emotion in her that she could not really define. At that instant, she wanted to ask Harry to tell her what it was, but she remembered her promise, she would never burden her friends. "I'm sorry," she said suddenly.

"What for?" Ron asked while Harry looked at her with confusion.

"I landed us this detention because I wasn't fast enough."

Harry and Ron both shrugged and smiled at her to assure her they weren't about to yell at her. The night went on rather uneventfully as they cleaned the classroom and Snape never once checked on them that it was slightly odd to have him lenient at them in some ways. They had thought that he'd enjoy making them squirm under his constant supervision and find more things for them to do so they'd have an extended detention.

"Are we still…" Ron began to ask but trailed off when he saw Harry's expression. "Well, I wasn't looking forward to sleeping anyway," he amended.

Harry remained silent for a while. "No. Maybe we should stop for a while. Snape could have set a trap for us somewhere…"

Hermione didn't bother to hold back her sigh of relief. There was something she still had to reflect on regarding Snape and she wasn't too keen on sneaking around while her mind was drifting off somewhere.

a-a-a-

_Her chest was hurting but was slowly lessening its pain as her fingers brushed over the rough surface of the walls. It was so comforting that she couldn't bring herself to run away when she heard sounds coming towards her. The hot liquid continuously trailed down her cheeks but she did not bother with it because it was hard to breathe as it was._

_The rough wall seemed to fade from her touch and she felt herself falling into the abyss, hearing screams of pain before dimly realizing that there was something warm wrapped around her. Through the darkness and her tears, she looked up at the shadow of someone and heard a very familiar voice…_

"Hermione."

The hand holding her arm shook her again and Hermione started up, looking at Ginny's worried face.

"Ginny," she said, aware that her chest was still hurting.

"Are you alright?" The redhead asked her.

"Huh?" She looked around and remembered that she was in the library. Her eyes scanned the table in front of her and she realized that she must have fallen asleep while doing her assignment in Transfiguration.

"You're crying," Ginny, who was sitting across of her, informed her suddenly.

With a frown, she reached up a hand to her cheek and was surprised to discover that her friend was right. Her mind whirled back to the dream she had but she could not really understand why she was crying.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She remembered that she was not alone and that Ginny was getting rather more worried by the second. "Just a dream," she said hurriedly and she smiled weakly. "Really," she added when the redhead was looking at her skeptically. "I really should finish this essay."

It was an obvious cue that she wanted to be alone but Ginny lingered for a moment before finally sighing and leaving her after her pointed ignoring. When she was once more alone, she stopped pretending to read what she had written and thought back to what she had been doing prior to her dreaming.

She had been thinking about what Harry had said roughly two weeks ago about Snape's mysterious changing of side. Harry had a point but why would Dumbledore trust Snape if the reason wasn't good? It could not have had something to do with the death of one student, could it?

Sighing, she knew she would not be able to do anything productive and so she started packing her things, grateful somewhat that she would have the evening after her prefect duty was through to do the essay due the following week. It was a good thing that since that rather oddly uneventful detention from Snape, they had not been sneaking around. As it was, she was rarely having a peaceful night with the dreams that had been plaguing her.

Her hand had grasped something in her bag when she reached inside to tuck some things better and she brought it out, frowning when she saw that it was an old parchment. Her frown deepened when she looked at it carefully, suddenly remembering that it was the same parchment she had put in her robe when they looked around the hidden room.

_How did it get there?_ She asked herself, musing for the better part of the hour until she finally figured it out. She did put a parchment in her bag that day Snape caught the message from Harry but it was _this_ parchment and not the one Harry had asked Neville to pass along.

Focusing on the rather familiar handwriting on the parchment, she tried to decipher the blurred writings and belatedly realized that she had read some of these ingredients from somewhere. Her mind began to trek on many subjects that could have possibly mentioned most of what was written.

Obviously, even when the other ingredients were already too blurred for her to read, the list was for a potion. After all, ingredients were usually used for such and she could not imagine many charms asking for them to put the said ingredients in a cauldron. She blinked her eyes more as she realized that below the ingredients appeared to be a detailed instruction.

_But an instruction for what potion exactly?_

a-a-a-

When she entered the Gryffindor common room that night, her mind was still wrapped around the mystery of the parchment. She had spent her entire weekend afternoon trying to read it and succeeded only partially as many of the writings were blurred beyond recognition.

"Hermione," Neville Longbottom said in greeting.

She nodded at him and murmured a simple "hi," as she passed by him on her way to the unoccupied chair by the fireplace. Sinking down on the comfortable seat, her mind started to go over what she had accomplished thus far and gave her the impression that she was still too far off in solving the mystery. She had only managed to decipher the first three instructions and about one-thirds of the listed ingredients, which she researched for their uses. As far as her research was concerned, the common denominator among them was that they can be used for divination, a subject that didn't quite match her talents and interests.

Perhaps she could ask someone in their house who was taking Divination still. But wouldn't that rouse suspicion? It would, surely. And knowing how words spread like wildfire, the entire school would be buzzing about so many distorted versions and spun-up tales.

_Besides, why would that girl be making some potion for divination when she got blown up? Could it be possible that she was trying to predict some weakness in Voldemort? Why would she be making that potion in some overly secluded classroom anyway? It's not as if she's brewing something illegal, is she?_

Suddenly, as if she just gotten a very strong central nervous system stimulant, her mind registered some plausible solution to her predicament. Why didn't she think of sneaking into the Restricted Section? She had been a frequent visitor there as of late, it wouldn't hurt to go there one more time…

_Harry and Ron would be thrilled to know about this._

But then, she thought about the disappointment on her best friends faces – especially Harry's – if they were not able to find anything. After all, she only managed to decipher a small part of the parchment; it was hardly a solid clue to lead them anywhere.

With the realization, she sighed and brooded for some time, finally coming into the conclusion when Harry and Ron came that she would sneak in alone and fill them in with the information when she had gotten really good and solid evidence to point them to the right direction.

So, later that night, she did sneak in alone in the library's Restricted Section.

a-a-a-

_She could feel eyes following her as she walked the dimly lit corridors with her bare feet. But she paid no regard whatsoever; she was comforted by the rough, stone walls. It was safe in here compared to the outside._

_With light steps, she walked on and on, roaming the huge castle that were now her last refuge from true and evil darkness. And still, the eyes followed her, watching every move she made until she felt her strength fade; she was growing weaker she knew, plagued by the images of the darkness that was to come, and drained by the suffocating loneliness and cruelty that the world dealt her with._

_But when she fell, she did not feel the pain of the impact. Perhaps she was just too numb to feel…_

"_You idiot," someone hissed and all faded into the darkness that was far from evil._

a-a-a-

"Hermione, are you sure? You look too pale to be walking alone," said Harry.

She nodded again, her irritation apparent. "Yes."

Her two best friends looked at her a bit uncertainly, but walked away to the other direction nonetheless. She watched them go and didn't even realize that she had stood there for minutes on end long after they had gone.

"Alone, Granger?"

Her eyes narrowed to slits and she spun around, her glare in place. "Malfoy," she spat, the name sounding like it was something too foul that it pained her to speak it.

Grey, unreadable eyes regarded her for a while. He shook his head, walking away without another word that she was left confused. But then, before he turned around the corner, he looked at her again, something she could not define present on his pointed but attractive face.

"You may know me as a liar, but believe me you're better off," he said in a tone he never used on her before – a tone without spite and mockery. "You're a Gryffindor, remember?"

To say that she was struck speechless at what he said was an understatement. She was looking at him with wide eyes and slack-opened mouth that she thought she saw a hint of amusement flash on his face before he walked away completely.

_Wha-what?_

Even her mind could not grasp that what had happened was reality and after she had mustered up the will to walk towards the library, she was convinced that she had been daydreaming.

_And about Malfoy of all people! Am I daft or what?_

a-a-a-

_Someone – no, something – was after her and she ran as fast as her unsteady legs could carry her; she was scared. If what was after her caught up, she knew she would die. She was too weak to fight and she left her wand in the girls' dormitories._

_But it was coming nearer, she could sense. Her legs were giving away._

_Suddenly, she felt someone grab her from somewhere on her right and she was slammed against the hard stone wall beside the heavy door that just closed. There were ragged breathings and she frowned, realizing that it was her own and someone else's. She looked up then, noticing that she was pinned on the wall by a boy her age._

_He was breathing hard as if he ran more than the distance she had covered and he was looking at her with a mixture of resignation and anger. "You…" He hissed angrily. "Would get us both killed!"_

_Her frown deepened. "I—"_

"_Shut up!" He said harshly as he covered her mouth with a strong hand._

_There were sounds outside – growling and some sounds of chasing something away. Minutes later, the sounds faded and he slowly released her. When he stepped away from her, she got a clear view of his face from the full moon's light that seeped through the window. She opened her mouth to say his name but the annoyance in his expression remained._

_Looking at her straight in the eye without a trace of spite, he muttered in such a low voice that she was sure she was not meant to hear it, "James would kill me for this."_

"Hermione?"

Someone was tapping her shoulder and she found it bothersome that she groaned and opened her eyes, slightly surprised to see Neville there looking at her with an uncertain and worried expression.

"Neville," she said, straightening up from the library table she had been resting her arms and head on. "Is there something you need?"

He looked sheepish. "No, actually. It's just that I heard you breathing so hard like you couldn't breathe and I thought… well… I thought that maybe you were having a nightmare. See, I knew someone who died because of nightmares, and I… well…"

She smiled at his nervous babbling. He must think she would hex him for disturbing her sleep. "Thank you."

He looked even more sheepish. "Um… well… I'll go look for some books now."

When he left, Hermione thought back to her strange dream. It had felt so real, like all her dreams lately. It was almost as if she had been really there. And suddenly, her thoughts went to Harry and the situation that happened in the Department of Mysteries.

Was it possible that Voldemort was implanting some images in her? But they weren't even connected, were they? Surely not! Besides, the dreams… they were so different from that of Harry's, like she was seeing through someone's eyes… and the dream she just had about something chasing her, about a boy who pulled her inside a classroom… She couldn't really remember his face, at least not all of the features. But he looked like someone she knew…

She sighed and folded her arms on the table again, resting her head on it. She felt too tired these days. Maybe all the worrying about the student who got killed in Hogwarts was getting into her. Plus, she had spent up to five in the morning looking for related information in the Restricted Section.

There were some things really about divination but the only thing she discovered about the ingredients used together pointed to some serious Dark Arts. She shuddered. A student of Hogwarts using Dark Arts getting blown up didn't sit well with her. Did that mean that the student was actually trying to summon the Dark Lord instead of looking for a weakness? Did that mean she was a Death Eater who displeased the Dark Lord enough that he killed her inside Hogwarts?

Her mind spun with questions and soon enough, she was wishing that she had a pillow to lay her head on for just a few minutes…

_The bed was soft and she did not want to leave it. However, something was pushing her to do so and very reluctantly, she did. It was dark outside – it was night time. But there was something heavy in the air, something foreboding that made her shiver with dread._

_She walked the hallway – something she was lately familiar with – and felt her stomach drop all of a sudden._

He_ was here._

_With great fear, she ran towards a room, trying to warn—_

_Then she felt it – a pain so great that it was worse than the killing curse itself; she knew this pain, the pain of anguish and love. It was over, wasn't it? But she continued to run, staggering at the pain; it hurt her so that she was hardly able to breathe at all. And when she arrived, a body lay on the floor – unmoving. Her heart wrenched and she reached out her hand to the creature so precious that two people were now dead, one inside the room and the other probably outside._

_Blood ran from the forehead of the child, matching the blood in her heart._

_It was done; the prophecy. And this life would bear all the pain the Wizarding world would offer him by quantities. Even those who would take him in would try to purge him of his special gift and cause him too much pain by doing so. She cried as her hand passed through the small boy; she wasn't there, she failed him._

_Flashes of light engulfed her and when it disappeared, she looked at the child – now a young man – fighting off the heart of the malicious darkness. He was bloodied and weak, his powers unable to escape from its prison inside him; desperation had not yet broken the dam he did not know existed within him._

_Harry…_

_There were so many dead witches and wizards from both sides. Did that matter? At the moment, she could not bring herself to care because the child she failed was facing certain death._

"_I would die first," he muttered with conviction, staggering slightly, his wand held out unsteadily._

_And she felt it, the last curse that would ever graze a body with life – Harry's body. As if in slow motion, the flash of light traveled slowly and she ran to stand in front of the boy –_

_No…_

_It hurt far more than she had anticipated. But she should have known. Emotions always hurt more than anything physical because the wounds go deeper, seeping into one's soul._

"_No…"_

_She heard the boy whisper and for once she was glad; she was there, wasn't she?_

"_Don't…" He said softly, his tears pooling in his amazing set of green eyes that looked so much like his mother's._

"_Pathetic," _he_, the cause of so much terror, mocked._

_But the hero stood with anger in his heart. And in one last time, the world waited for its fate…_

_Everything must come to an end as they say. When he fell, everything faded with him. Could they blame him for not succeeding? They could, they would. And she couldn't understand why even in her death, pain refused to leave … perhaps because she failed after all. He wasn't supposed to suffer like this… it was not meant to be. It was unfair how they forced a little boy to slay a dragon and blame him when he ends up being slain instead._

_It was unfair… But that's just the way life moves._

_Again and again, it felt like she was under the Cruciatus Curse. But no, it was just guilt, resentment, defeat, and so many other things. She failed Harry. And it pained her so… even death would never be enough penance. She couldn't die even with all the torment, her soul couldn't rest. Because even then, it still was not enough and she would pay penance after penance, forever trapped in the cycle… because she would choose it to pay for all the lives lost – especially those lives that mattered most to her._


	3. Seeing the Truth

**Author's Note:** Thanks to **Rane2920072, Moon, EnchantingFreak, SilentConfession, **and **BlackPaintedWhite** for giving a review. I'm sorry for not updating for so long. Things have been rather… demanding for me. But anyway, I made the chapter long and I'm off to tend to the other stories. **Thanks again to the reviewers. **

**Disclaimer: **JKR owns the characters and I am not making money out of this.

**Summary: **When they discovered a supposed murder in Hogwarts some twenty years ago while searching for a link to Sirius, Hermione, plagued by weird dreams, never expected to end up in the past, dealing with many things like prejudice and love. **(SiriusHermione)**

**(1) - **_By the will of my heart, By the blood of my ancestors, I call upon all forces, To show me what I desire_

**(2)** - What do you wish to see?

* * *

**Chapter 3: Seeing the Truth**

**

* * *

**

**Late July 1995**

"Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed with wide eyes full of fear.

Hermione closed her eyes tightly and prepared herself for the dreadful impact she was sure to make on the floor. After all, falling from a ladder was not exactly painless. But someone caught her and she felt her thumping heart give a start from relief. She heard someone mumbling something under his breath and when she opened her eyes, she realized that it was Sirius.

He was still holding her and he looked rather out of thought, his eyes elsewhere as it was fixed at the ladder.

She couldn't help it but she stared at him; she had never come _this_ close to him to actually see his features too clearly. Truthfully, she was fascinated by how he looked and she wondered briefly how he looked before he was sent to Azkaban, because even when he had that somewhat diminished look expected of an ex-inmate to that scary place, he had this somewhat aristocratic – haughty even – good looks even when it was faded enough to be overlooked at some distance. But at this close of a space, it couldn't be denied; it was there all along. She felt sorry for him. The pain that he must've endured–

"Are you alright?" He asked, suddenly looking at her that she found herself extremely embarrassed at having been caught staring.

"I am, thanks," she said, avoiding his eyes and finally feeling uncomfortable at the fact that he still had his arms around her. When he did not say anything else, she began unconsciously squirming.

"Hermione!" Someone exclaimed.

She looked up and smiled at the redheaded Ginny, who was not standing near them looking very much relieved.

"I think we need a break from all this cleaning."

They all looked at the door in surprise, where Mrs. Weasley stood, looking at them strangely.

"Sirius, someone's come to visit you," Mrs. Weasley said, waiting. "Remus Lupin?"

Sirius seemed to snap into focus as he nodded and released Hermione slowly. He looked at the brunette as if contemplating before he walked out of the room, followed by Mrs. Weasley.

"You frightened me!" Ginny said suddenly. "It's a good thing that Sirius caught you!"

"Er, yeah, it's a good thing." _Not to mention embarrassing… _She added in her mind silently, wondering if Sirius thought of her as someone who constantly needed to be watched.

She can remember that when she first arrived in 12 Grimmauld Place, his eyes were so unreadable and were always following her around that she wondered if there was something she did that made him suspicious of something. And every time she would speak in his presence, he would look at her steadily that she would trail off in self-consciousness. There were times too, when she became accident-prone that he seemed to be always rescuing her. Truth be told, it was making her think if Sirius felt the need to be a big brother.

_Did he see my reaction when his mother shouted insults at me? _She shuddered then, remembering the horrible things Mrs. Black kept on screeching when she first arrived in the house. It unnerved her that even a painting found her so repulsive.

_Is it really so bad to have a muggleborn around?_

The door opened and Ron came inside. "Aren't you going to join us?"

_Oh of course! Professor Lupin just came. I really should ask him about some things about this house…_ She though, glancing around the room and getting a strange feeling about it.

"Let's go," Ron said with a grin. "We'd never know when they would slip about something. It's best we're around when they do."

-a-

**Present Time**

"Please, wake up."

"Come on, Hermione!"

When she saw a pair of green eyes, she bolted upright, lunging at her friend and hugging him with all her might. "Harry!"

He hugged her back. "You're alright."

"We thought—"

"Ron!" She partially detached herself from Harry and grabbed her redhead friend in a tight hug and they ended up in group hug. Her tears came then; she though… by Merlin she truly thought…

"Thank goodness you're awake," Madam Pomfrey's voice interrupted her thoughts, coming closer to them and beginning to pull her away from her friends in an attempt to check on her. "Boys, it is best that you two leave now and let me do my job."

"But—"

A stern expression graced Madam Pomfrey's face and the two boys ceased their protests, sending her a very anxious and yet promising look before leaving. It was then that Hermione noticed that she was in the Hospital Wing being fussed around with. A look of curiosity engulfed her face, forgetting the silent message of her friends that they would sneak in later.

"What am I doing here?"

The nurse gave her a piercing look, clearly trying to see whether the question was meant as a joke or not. But after a while, Madam Pomfrey's face was filled with warring emotions. "Miss Granger, are you sure you have no recollection whatsoever of why you are here?"

"No…" she answered, now beginning to get scared. What happened? "I was just in the library and I must've fallen asleep." She did fall asleep right? And had that awful, awful dream about… Her fear escalated. Was it possible? Was it possible even in the smallest bit that she saw the future?

"You look pale, Miss Granger. I think I shall keep you here for observation," the nurse said immediately, giving her a glance that said she would accept no argument. Suddenly, some Slytherins entered the Hospital Wing, making Madam Pomfrey sigh with exasperation. "I shall leave you for a moment, Miss Granger. Really, Quidditch practices should be banned!"

She hardly even paid attention as Madam Pomfrey left her side. What really happened? Why was she in the Hospital Wing? Did that dream mean something at all? Did she suddenly develop a miniscule of talent in Divination? – She had shuddered violently at the question.

_No! Harry is alive! Ron is alive! I am alive!_

By the time a few hours had passed, Madam Pomfrey allowed her to go but was seemingly reluctant about it. Hermione could not help but be puzzled though when she spied a note in the nurse's grasps – a note that looked as if it came from the Headmaster himself.

_Is there something she's not telling me? _She wondered as she walked along an empty corridor that night on her way to the Gryffindor Tower. When she reached the Fat Lady, the woman in the painting was looking at her oddly even after she had said the password.

"Would you please open up?" Hermione asked tiredly.

The Fat Lady seemed to have been startled by her request and smiled at her. "Oh of course, dearie."

_Did the Headmaster say something to Madam Pomfrey and the Fat Lady? They're acting… strangely. It's almost as if…_

"Hermione."

She nearly jumped at being startled out of her thoughts and she looked around in an attempt to discover who could possibly be talking to her at this time when everyone was supposedly having their dinner in the Great Hall. When her eyes stopped on the fireplace, she noticed her former DADA professor's head there.

"Professor," she said, walking towards the fireplace with her brows furrowed in question.

"Are you alright? I was informed that–"

"Whatever they said – the Headmaster, Harry, Ron, or whoever – I am alright. I don't even understand why every one is acting strangely!" She finished, her irritation evident in her voice. Then suddenly remembering something, "Professor, there's something very important that I need to ask about. It's something... strange." She looked nervous then. "Something that might seem crazy but..."

Lupin looked at her steadily before sighing wearily – too wearily. "I think I have an idea on what you're going to ask about." He looked back behind him as if someone was calling him elsewhere before looking at her apologetically. "There is something I need to attend to at the moment. Perhaps we could talk of this personally."

"How? Send a letter to the Headmaster to allow me to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

His face broke into a smile. "You have saved me from further thoughts. I shall see you tomorrow then."

And with that, the conversation ended and Hermione was forced to retreat to the girls' dorm before everyone came back. She needed to sleep if she was to be ready tomorrow.

-a-

There was a nagging feeling in her that urged her mind to grapple for some information, some solid facts that could possibly put her fear to rest. She had to ask someone who might possibly know of what she was dreaming about. They were only dreams perhaps but they were beginning to give her a feeling that something was just so _wrong_. There was something amiss that she couldn't put her finger on.

Perhaps something was wrong with her; she needed help. And at that moment, she decided that no matter how silly she would sound, she had to tell someone, ask for help.

"Hermione."

She spun around and stared at the shabbily dressed Remus Lupin. Somehow, she still wondered how it was that he seemed so _familiar_ in a way she couldn't describe. It was as if she had seen him even before her third year. He was just so–

"Hermione?"

"Oh hi, Professor," she said belatedly, shaking herself out of her musing and looking back behind her at the Shrieking Shack.

"Familiar, isn't it?"

She looked back at him and finally noticed that he seemed so tired, like he had never even slept a wink. "Are you alright? Do you want us to talk inside the Shack?"

He shook his head and regarded her with an air that gave her the impression that he knew something important, something so heavy that it was eating him inside. Suddenly, she found that she wanted to be back in Hogwarts to forget about everything.

"You kept telling me about a _feeling_ in Grimmauld Place," he said without any warning.

"Yes, but I meant to ask you about another thing." The nervousness she felt didn't seem to want to leave and somehow, she had the inkling that whatever direction their talk would take, it was bound to make her want to wish she never ever found out whatever he was trying to say. "I'm having dreams," she blurted out, partially to sway the topic, and partially to end this conversation as soon as possible. She felt so nervous for a reason that she was actually getting _scared_.

"Dreams?" He did not sound surprised, not in the least bit. "How do you feel about them? When you're in there?"

His unreadable gaze was chipping away at her. "Many things actually. It's almost real... the familiarity… pain… fear…" She shuddered at a sudden image of green-eyes looking so... empty.

"Was there a feeling of loss?"

Her eyes widened and her heart hammered so hard in her chest that she was sure everyone could hear every beat. _No…Harry… Ron…_ "I-I… I have to go," she said suddenly and before Lupin could put in another word, she ran away, ran faster than she had ever had in her entire life.

-a-

She ran through the corridors, her lungs burning so painfully. The dream couldn't be true; she was not in the least bit gifted in Divination. It was just as impossible as saying that she was a pureblood.

_Pureblood. Right. And the Slytherins would go about asking me if I wanted to be a Death Eater, _she thought sarcastically.

She knew that she was trying to elude something, her feelings on the concept of her dreams actually meaning something. Never in her life has she wished that dreams were just that; nothing but figment of someone's imagination, of someone's brain too tired to actually form something coherent and plausible.

_No…_

It was getting harder and harder to breathe and her vision was growing blurry. Perhaps it had something to do with her tears, her mind thought distractedly.

_Tears? No… I'm not going to cry over something so… so rubbish as Divination! _She thought savagely. _Divination is nothing but a fraudulent field with silly people groping about blindly in hopes of knowing whatever demented things their unimportant future holds!_

But she cried still, harder and harder till she knew no more.

-a-

She was floating in the darkness when suddenly, she felt herself drop into wakefulness. There was someone holding her hand…

"Hermione," someone whispered.

In the darkness, she squinted her eyes and was soon accosted with sight of her two best friends as they appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Ron… Harry…"

"How are you feeling?" Ron whispered a bit too loudly.

Her face twisted to reveal her bemusement. "What?"

Both boys looked at each other.

"First, some Hufflepuff found you in the library writhing in pain," Ron muttered in an annoyed tone. "And then we find you passed out near the Gryffindor common room with the Fat Lady screeching at us to bring you to the Hospital Wing. Really, Hermione, you're bloody mental!"

Harry watched her brows meet in the middle.

"But I… I always just study in the library… I never writhed in… Well, have any of you found anything about the murder?" She asked in a desperate attempt to change the topic; she absolutely did not need them to fuss around her and get them all in trouble with Madam Pomfrey.

It didn't work but Harry seemed to have read the desperation on her face as he followed her lead in changing the topic with a shake of his head.

She bit her lip and remembered the parchment. An idea suddenly struck her; maybe she could find something about it that could help her find out whether her dream was true or not. Hopefully, it would put her at ease. "Harry, may I borrow your Invisibility Cloak?"

Ron frowned. "What for? You can't be thinking about—"

"I don't even know why I'm here. And it's not like the both of you enjoy researching," she said defensively. "Harry, please?"

He didn't like the idea but when she kept on giving him her pleading look, he relented and handed her the Invisibility Cloak, bidding her good night thereafter and pulling Ron away to begin their trek back to the Gryffindor Tower before they got caught. After all, with the Invisibility Cloak in Hermione's possession, their stealth was compromised.

When they had left, Hermione waited only for a few minutes before sneaking out of the Hospital Wing and into the Restricted Section, casting a silencing charm and beginning her research.

-a-

"And Snape was glaring at your seat all the while," Ron finished, his face red with annoyance. "If I didn't know any better, he's mad at us for something else even before we actually did something!"

Harry remained silent. He knew Snape was angry at him firstly because he looked like his father, someone that reminded Snape of rather painful and degrading memories. But what about Ron and Hermione?

"I know," the redhead continued. "Maybe he never has had a love life that he's looking for someone to blame. Maybe you have his old crush's eyes or something and you remind him of how he got rejected over and over again!"

"Oh don't be silly, Ron," Hermione admonished, shifting on the bed slightly to look at Harry. "What do you think, Harry?"

He shrugged, deciding that talking about Snape brought back memories of him losing his godfather. He wished suddenly that Madam Pomfrey would usher them out now. Maybe when they come back later, Snape wouldn't be the topic.

"Are you alright?" Hermione suddenly asked. "You look sick. Perhaps—"

"Time's up," Madam Pomfrey interrupted, looking impatiently at the three of them.

Ron opened his mouth to protest but when Harry bade Hermione goodbye, he was forced to follow. Fighting Madam Pomfrey alone didn't seem like a good idea.

-a-

_Come on!_

She walked past the section of blank wall found on the seventh floor three times, thinking of the mystery potion's important information that she needed and the ingredients she would need to brew it. Her mind hurt from concentrating hard on what she needed that it was nearly unbearable to know that just opposite of her was an enormous tapestry of Barnabas the Balmy trying to teach trolls, of all creatures, to dance the ballet.

Suddenly, a door appeared and she sighed with relief, opening the door and darting inside, finding a table in the middle with a thick, moldy tome on it. Her eyes scanned the smaller table on the farthest right corner and found some things on it. They were what she would need to brew the potion no doubt.

She sighed and removed the Invisibility Cloak that Harry lent her the previous night, thinking that she should not have borrowed it in the first place to go research. All she needed was the concentration to will the Room of Requirement to give her what she needed.

Walking to the middle, she approached her destination and saw that on it a black book with strange-looking markings all over it – be it on the back cover or on the front. As she turned it, she noticed one symbol and from memory, remembered seeing it in one of the books in the Restricted Section of the Library last night.

_A binding charm?_ She began to feel her insides clench with apprehension. _This can't be good. Whatever is inside this book is not just some ordinary Dark Arts._

She tried to open the book with shaky hands but it wouldn't unclose and she was both relieved and frustrated at the turn of events. But a while later and she was getting annoyed. She didn't have time to dillydally for heaven's sake! For all she knew, someone could be out sneaking off and needing something in the Room of Requirement.

_I need the key to open it._

A dagger appeared on the table and curiously, she placed the book down beside it to raise the weapon and examine it. Strangely, the blade had the same markings as the book and its hilt were embedded with some sort of jewels by the color of red, blue, yellow, and black.

_No green?_ She thought sarcastically.

On closer inspection, she guessed that the gemstones, embedded quite abundantly on the hilt that the gold holding them in seemed almost invisible, were like binding charms too.

_Let's see… red… this is a bloodstone! The blue is… hm…_ She turned the dagger again and again. _Sapphire? The yellow is a topaz? And the black is… an onyx._

"Fire, water, wind, and earth," she murmured absently and noticed that when the light hit the black stone, there were hints of green inside it. She stared at the book and then at the dagger, finally understanding what she had to do to open it.

Biting her lower lip nervously, she held out her finger on top of the black book and pricked it with the tip of the dagger, waiting with restrained breath as the blood trickled to the book.

The moment the blood dropped on it, the writings on the book's cover glinted an angry gold before they returned to the normal silver color. The book then opened on its own accord and turned to a page where she noticed that what she had deciphered from the parchment was there.

She dropped the knife in shock. _Oh no! Oh no!_ She thought with panic when she realized that now she'd have to do dark magic. Her thoughts had been focused on the research, never really sure that she would get to the point where she actually will do the brewing, that now she found herself growing weaker with apprehension.

"I can't do this!" Her voice trembled and she sought out excuses. "I mean the 'Blood of my Sires'? I don't have Seer blood!" She took in nervous breaths and her eyes darted around the room as if someone was watching her. "I don't have Seer blood," she repeated to no one, trying to convince herself that this was not happening.

_What was I thinking? I can't…_

Frantically, she read the page and tried to find more reason for her not to do the blasted thing but when her eyes caught the part of it saying that it can show her the future, her dream of Harry dying flashed inside her mind.

She shuddered then, remembering that there were so many dead bodies… she could now remember that she vaguely saw Ron's dead body a few feet away from Harry and Voldemort.

_I can't… let them die._ She shook with fear._ I can't let them die!_

With a new-found determination, she set about trying to do the spell that covered not only Divination but Potions as well. It would've been a fantastic feeling doing such a complicated thing if it weren't for the fact that it was deeply and completely Ancient Dark Arts.

Carefully, she made a cauldron-full of the potion, adding only the exact amounts specified in the book. It wasn't hard come to think of it if one were to follow everything. But when she came to reading the end parts, she began to feel uncertain again.

_This wouldn't work…_

Looking at the cauldron, she bit her lip and spilled drops of her blood into it using the dagger. It was supposed to change from a murky green to a solid black but nothing was happening. She bit her lip harder and something at the bottom of the page caught her eyes. The writing was so small, almost insignificant. But when she looked closer, it was a warning.

Her heart raced. There was barely any survivor in this particular type of spell. Only those who succeeded would live through the process because—

There was an audible pop and she almost dropped the book in surprise. When she turned her attention to the cauldron, the murky water was turning a strange grayish white.

_I'm going to die…_

But the thought of everyone she loved dying scared her more.

_In for a knut, in for a galleon…_

In a shaky voice, she dropped the book on the floor and placed some myrrh and spider legs on the mixture. Swallowing, she held the knife above the cauldron.

"Per mos of meus pectus pectoris, Per cruor of meus Genitor," and here she cut her wrist, wincing at the pain and the sight of blood pouring into the cauldron. "EGO dico super totus copiae copie, Exhibeo mihi quis EGO votum."**(1)**

Her words seemed to echo its meaning all over the room.

Then, she felt it – her strength draining so fast that she found herself sprawled on the floor, breathing hard and feeling her heart about to burst with an extreme pain. She never felt anything like it before, even when she had that dream where Harry… The pain was different, not caused by intense negative emotion; it was just pain. Black spots began dancing in front of her eyes and she knew she was on the verge of passing out.

But a female voice much like that of a singing siren echoed in the room in a haunting way and for a moment, the pain disappeared. It was as if the voice had a potent hypnotic effect on her and she briefly recalled that sirens were sea nymphs that caused many sailors to drown as they sailed, lulled by the enchanting voices, towards the cliff of the island Sirenum Scopuli where the nymphs lived.

"Quis operor vos votum video vidi visum?" **(2)**

She looked up and saw that at the top of the cauldron, a mist was forming the image of a woman's body though it was too vague that there really wasn't any clear feature.

The pain was gone but her mind seemed blank and her throat too dry. A flash of red from the dagger on the floor reminded her. "Future… posterus…" She choked out.

The nymph mist glowed and all of a sudden, she found herself lying in the middle of so many dead bodies, her body in pain. But it was not only her chest and she sat up, noticing that she had so many bruises and cuts covering her. When she looked at what was beside her, her eyes widened and she couldn't believe it.

_Ron…_

His eyes were looking up at her; they were empty, devoid of any sign of life.

"I would die first…"

She looked up and was frightened beyond belief. There, just a few feet away, was her other best friend and their worst enemy.

"No…" She yelled as she struggled to stand up, running towards Harry before the killing spell she knew Voldemort would cast was said. Just as she had reached Harry, she felt the curse hit her.

"No…" Harry whispered, his eyes wide with shock, fear, and anguish as he caught her. "Don't…"

"Pathetic," Voldemort mocked.

She saw anger take over Harry and she wasn't sure how; she was supposed to be dead. Perhaps she was and she was merely seeing like a ghost bystander but to her horror, Harry slowly placed her body down and stood up.

She just knew what would happen and when Harry fell, she felt the world darken around her with a suffocating swiftness.


	4. Take the Plunge

**Author's Note:** Thanks to **Blossom1098 **(lol. Here's the new chap)**, faithfulwriter **(nope this is not H/H though the seem close. Lol)**, EnchantingFreak **(yay! Reviewer since from the start! Thanks a lot)**, Rane2920072 **(Another reviewer from the start! Thanks a bunch!)and **BlackPaintedWhite **(Glad you decided to stick around even if you had to reread the last chapter) for the feedbacks. Thanks peeps. I'm having an early chapter because I'm having my exams soon. I hope this makes up for how much time I'll miss from writing. Hope to receive some reviews. **They help a lot. Thanks again.**

**Disclaimer: **JKR owns the characters and I am not making money out of this.

**Summary: **When they discovered a supposed murder in Hogwarts some twenty years ago while searching for a link to Sirius, Hermione, plagued by weird dreams, never expected to end up in the past, dealing with many things like prejudice and love. **(SiriusHermione)**

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**CHAPTER 4: Take the Plunge**

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Twelfth of August 1995**

"I hope it goes well," Hermione said worriedly, her thoughts spinning around the hearing that would determine whether Harry did violate laws regarding underage sorcery outside school and in a muggle-inhabited place no less.

"You should calm down, Hermione," Ron said. "I'm getting dizzy with your pacing about."

"I'm just worried about Harry." She huffed for a moment. "I think I need to pace somewhere alone." She looked at Ron weakly and then at the other occupants of the room before leaving.

She was just pacing for a few minutes in the kitchen when someone entered. Looking up, she saw that it was Sirius, looking amusedly at her. He walked towards the nearest chair and sat down. They fell into a companionable silence then and Hermione continued pacing.

"Everyone is also worried," Sirius suddenly said, looking intensely at her. "You worry about him relentlessly. It's driving most people crazy."

Hermione stopped her pacing and sank down on the chair across from Sirius. "I know and I'm sorry but it's just…" She sighed and stared at the table as if her life depended on it. "Harry's like a brother to me. He's one of the first people in the strange, new world to have ever been part of my life and…" She looked up. "I know it couldn't be compared to how you must worry for him but…"

He nodded at her even when she trailed off and he was silent for a while. "Do you always worry like this?"

She smiled sheepishly. "When I care a lot for that person, yes."

"And when you don't?"

"Well," she said slowly. But when she noticed that he was practically drowning in waves of amusement, she couldn't help but be defensive. "So I'm a worrywart. It's not like it's a sin."

He laughed then, his voice a rich baritone that set her at ease with a strange feeling of familiarity. "Harry is very lucky indeed."

"Of course he is. He has all of us," she said, her eyes going to the kitchen's door as Lupin entered, eyeing them thoughtfully.

-a-

**Present Time**

Groaning, she opened her eyes. _What happened? _She asked herself as she found herself once more in the Hospital Wing. Her eyes blinked again and again. _Was everything all a dream? I'm really going insane._

"I see you are finally up and about, Miss Granger."

She tried to sit up but felt as if she was bound to the bed by some invisible ropes.

"I had to bind you," Madam Pomfrey said sternly. "I can't have you slipping out of here and ending up passed out in the corridors again, now can I?"

"Wha–"

"Your friends found you just outside the entrance to the Gryffindor common room _again_ ," the nurse cut off, irritation coming off her in waves. "Gallivanting about in your condition. Really. Children these days ought to know when they are capable and when they are not!"

"That is enough, Poppy."

Hermione didn't know whether to be relieved or be nervous about the appearance of Dumbledore there. But when she saw her ever-antagonizing Potions professor, she didn't think twice but be nervous indeed.

"Professor Dumbledore. Professor Snape."

Dumbledore smiled at her but Snape regarded her coldly as if she was a waste of time and he was just forced to be there. What was he doing there anyway?

"Poppy, please leave us for a moment."

Madam Pomfrey looked at Hermione with a calculating look before leaving. There was silence for some time until Snape seemed to get thoroughly impatient.

"Did you or did you not make _the _potion?" He asked directly, glaring at her.

Her face must have been written with guilt all over it because Snape seemed to bristle more.

"I told you they were up to no good."

At the comment, she felt her anger surge and before she could really think, she opened her mouth to say the first thing on her mind. "A student got murdered here in Hogwarts and Voldemort is responsible! What would you have us do now that that bastard is acting up again!" She glared at her Potions professor angrily. Merlin! The man was an absolute pain!

Dumbledore regarded them as if there was nothing wrong. "Now Miss Granger, you know that we are only concerned about your well-being. You have been found unconscious thrice and have been unconscious for more than one week at a time. Is there something you need to tell us?"

She looked at the Headmaster and was instantly sure that Lupin must have said something. "I don't mean to sound offensive, Professor, but I'm sure you already know everything," she couldn't help but say bitterly.

The Headmaster nodded calmly. "Yes, indeed. However, I was hoping that you would have been more willing to trust us personally. But let that be the past." He looked at her carefully. "You have admitted to having dreams and they have become quite a concern for us."

Her brows furrowed and although her anger was still present, her natural curiosity overrode it. "They don't mean anything, do they?" A knot began forming in her stomach as she remembered the recent one she had.

"It depends, Miss Granger. You see–"

"I don't have any gift in Divination," she protested immediately. Even after performing something that hinted the dreams could be true, she did not want to accept it. _No… Harry… Ron…_

There was silence again. Snape was still busy glaring at her but now she could detect something different in Dumbledore. She didn't know what or how she even knew, but there was something inside her that told her so. And before she knew it, her eyes began to water over. The stress was really getting into her that her usually collected composure seemed to desert her lately.

"Professor," she said through a choked voice. "They don't mean anything."

Still Dumbledore did not say anything. She looked at him with a desperate plea in her eyes but he simply looked back at her in a sad way that she did not understand.

"No…" Her tears began to fall. "No. No. No! This can't be happening! I'm just going crazy!" She struggled with the invisible ropes dimly aware that Dumbledore did not even more or say anything to make her stop.

Was this how Dumbledore treated Harry after Sirius died – just letting him rage about? Was Dumbledore really going to allow her to be this way till she ran out of strength? Why? Did he know about the dream she had about Harry? Or that what she did in the Room of Requirement mirrored her worst dream?

"Oh Merlin no!" She eventually got tired after a long time of struggling and she lay there shaking. "Professor… I… I saw Harry… he was fighting with… and… and he… he… he… and there were… so many dead…" And her tears flooded full force. She couldn't help it. To hell with pride; she was scared for everyone she loved. "I performed the spell… because… I wanted to see… if-if… it was… r-real."

For a moment, she saw Snape's stricken expression. At any other time, she would've felt triumphant indeed to have caused that reaction, but now, she felt even more terrified.

"You mean to say, Miss Granger," Snape said in a hollow voice. "That you used the spell to see into the future… not the past?"

"I don't need to see the past!" She shouted angrily, her anger giving back her ability to speak coherently. Her tears still violently escaped her eyes. "I don't care about the past! I couldn't change it!" She glared at Snape before directing her angry expression at Dumbledore, who now looked even sadder.

"The past holds everything, Miss Granger…"

She felt her anger surge to further heights. How could he be like that? Hadn't he heard that Harry would die? That his death would mean so many people would die as well?

"Professor," she said sharply, not caring anymore if she got expelled for her behavior. "The past means nothing to me! Harry does! Ron does!" She paused, for a split second hesitating. "They're dead, the people you taught," she spat coldly, feeling an odd sense of satisfaction at the hurt that seemed to emerge strangely from both Dumbledore and Snape. "They're dead," she repeated savagely. "But the people here aren't!"

"They shouldn't be dead, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said sadly. "We understand that now."

"I don't," she retorted coolly. "And I don't care anymore. They're the past. We can't do anything about it."

Snape seemed to lose his sadness and replace it with anger. "_We _can't."

"And it's my fault?" She asked, rising to the bait. "Whoever _you _killed that made you change sides, I certainly don't care about."

The color on Snape's face drained at what she said and again, the odd satisfaction rose inside her. She never knew that she would reach this point of disrespect but she didn't care. The entire world could be informed of this but did it matter? In the near future, they'd be dead anyway and there was no way around it. Unless…

"Mister Potter, Mister Weasley!" Madam Pomfrey's voice rose from the entrance of the Hospital Wing.

There were sounds of running and Hermione couldn't even describe her feeling of elation upon seeing her best friends' faces.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, rushing to her bedside and ignoring the fact that Dumbledore and Snape were there. "You're awake!"

Harry followed Ron's lead, going to her bedside. But he looked at Dumbledore curiously for a moment before he looked back at her. "What happened?"

"You might want to say goodbye to Miss Granger," Snape cut in, his face back to its normal complexion.

"What?" Ron asked, glaring at Snape openly. He was after all loyal to Hermione and absolutely hated Snape since first year. "She didn't do anything!"

"That's the point, Mister Weasley," Snape returned coldly. "She didn't do _anything_."

Ron grew angry at that but apparently, Harry was angrier. "You're planning on _expelling _her for _nothing_? Aren't we acting _clean_?" He still wanted to blame Sirius' death on Snape. And now that the spiteful professor was out to expel a very good friend of his, he wouldn't even bother reigning in his anger even with Dumbledore around. "You _killed _that student, didn't _you_? You knew her! You want to get rid of us one at a time because we're on to what _you _did!" He spat angrily.

Madam Pomfrey stood rooted near Snape, seemingly forgetting that she was planning on throwing both boys out. What was going on?

"Harry," Dumbledore began, still with that irritating sadness lurking in his expression. It reminded Harry of how Dumbledore looked after Sirius died and it made him angrier.

"He killed _her_. We know he did!"

Again, Snape's face paled. And were those guilt and pain in his eyes? "So I did," he said almost in a whisper, so much pain in his voice. "I did, didn't I?" He looked at Dumbledore.

Ron's jaw was hanging open in shock and overwhelming anger. "You-you despicable–" He was sputtering. "Professor!" He looked at Dumbledore. "You knew!"

"He didn't kill her, Mister Weasley," Dumbledore said sadly. "She's not dead."

There was tense silence that settled. She was alive? Where was she?

"Please say goodbye to Miss Granger," Dumbledore said finally. "We shall be back later to speak to her about important things."

"But Professor!" Ron protested, ignoring his friends' shocked silence.

"It is best that she be returned to where she belongs – to the family that I'm sure misses her." Dumbledore turned to Madam Pomfrey. "Give them time, Poppy."

And that was that; Dumbledore, Snape and Madam Pomfrey left them alone to deal with what was happening and what will happen.

Hermione wished her parents were with her at that moment. They would know what to do, would know what to tell her. Not that Ron and Harry didn't, but that was the point. They knew her so well that they would sense she was hiding something more. And what would she tell them? That they would die in the near future? Was that how she would repay their loyalty and comfort? Telling them something so dreadful, so tragic?

"Hermione," Harry said, putting a hand on her arm. "There must be another way."

Ron bristled. "I can't believe this! They'd expel you for nothing!"

She shook her head quietly, closing her eyes. "I… I did something," she whispered. Could she bear to lie to them till the last moment? "I found something in the hidden room."

"So what?" Ron interrupted angrily. "It wasn't like you killed someone!"

"It was a parchment and," she opened her eyes and looked at her friends intently. They might as well know the truth and try to change it before it was too late. It was just a prophecy, wasn't it? "It was about a Dark Art spell used for divination."

Harry looked confused. "You… you used a Dark Art?"

"I had to, Harry. I had to know."

"It's still not enough to expel you!" Harry said before Ron could. No, he wasn't angry at her for using it. He was angry at Dumbledore and Snape. "I'm sure there are a whole lot of the Slytherins using it here!"

"This is bloody crazy!" Ron cut in. "It's just unfair!"

Hermione agreed but there wasn't anything she could do.

"I don't understand Dumbledore at all," Ron continued to rant. "Isn't he even going to give you a chance to defend yourself? He's just expelling you without a second thought!"

"Maybe… maybe he has a reason," she said quietly, not even sure why she felt the sudden need to defend someone who _is _going to expel her without further considerations.

"There must be a way," Harry repeated, his eyes boring into hers that she had to look away. "You just can't give up!" His voice quivered and rose. "It's my fault anyway! I talked you into this remember?"

It was funny actually. It was almost like the time Ron and Harry were fighting in the common room when Harry, Fred, and George were banned from playing Quidditch. But she was just a bystander then. Harry had been irritated at Ron for blaming himself then. Now, Harry was irritated with her for resigning so easily.

"It's my fault, Hermione!" Harry said almost in a yell. "It's my fault!"

"It's mine, too," Ron said, sounding desperate. "He can't expel you! You're the brightest student in the entire school!"

She listened to them for a while as they argued at whose fault it was until she realized that they were wasting time. She might as well give a last shot at trying to save the Wizarding World before she was asked to leave it forever. At least it would mean that her expulsion was for a good cause.

"Harry, Ron," she said suddenly to startle them out of their pointless argument. "There's something else."

It worked. They immediately ceased talking and looked at her as if the Hermione they knew was back. In a way she was because she sounded determined, not resigned to her fate.

"I used it to see the future. I had been having dreams I couldn't understand. But when I saw something," she looked at them carefully, Harry most of all. "Something that resembled what happened to your… parents, Harry, I was scared because it was followed with you fighting with…"

"Voldemort?" Harry asked.

Ron winced slightly but Hermione had already forced herself to say 'Voldemort' since fifth year.

"You lost, Harry, and Ron was dead. _I _was dead, too. It scared me into using even a dark art to see if it was true."

"And?" Ron asked with a horror-stricken face.

"It is… We have to change it, no matter what."

Silence. And then, Ron opened his mouth – "How?"

Harry clenched his fists that his knuckles were very white. "Some hero I am," he said bitterly.

"It's not your fault!" Hermione exclaimed, growing angry again. "There must've been a reason for it! Stop feeling sorry and start thinking of how we can change this!"

Harry's green eyes flashed. "How do you suggest we do this? Change the past! We can't even get over the problem of you being expelled!"

They glared at each other but Ron seemed to be distant for a while.

"You know what, mate? You've got the perfect idea." Ron said slowly. "We could change the past."

The two looked at him incredulously.

"I know… I know," the redhead added hastily. "But we'd only change some things. Maybe fourth year? Prevent You-Know-Who from having a body?"

They continued to look at Ron in silence and the redhead fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Brilliant," Hermione finally said. "I can go."

"What?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"I'll be expelled anyway so breaking anything wouldn't matter," she said. "It's the perfect plan."

"Maybe I should go," Ron said. "You two got to go when we were in third year. It's my turn to do something."

"Don't be silly, Ron," Hermione admonished. "You could get expelled for this!" She turned to Harry. "They'd be here later. Maybe you can get me a time-turner in the Room of Requirement and give it to me before I'm expelled." She suddenly remembered Harry's invisibility cloak. "Oh my–"

"We found the cloak, don't worry," Harry assured. "But this plan…"

"Is brilliant," she argued stubbornly. "You two should go now before I get expelled."

Ron's mouth dropped in surprise. "You mean you're okay with getting _expelled_?"

"Well," she said airily. "It's not like it can be helped. We might as well do something about it while we're at it."

Moments passed and there wasn't any reaction at all, until Harry smiled slightly.

"That bravery is Hermione's although getting expelled is something she'd never really get over before," he said softly, giving her arm a squeeze before walking away.

Ron sighed and smiled slightly, also squeezing her arm. "I reckon Harry just about agreed to your plan."

"Don't worry, Ron. Maybe changing things in fourth year would change things leading up to this event."

He nodded and looked at her for a while, looking as if he was trying to memorize her reassuring face before he left. She sighed then. Time traveling up to two years? It would be very dangerous especially given her fainting spells lately. Thinking about it, she never really traveled so far back in time. When she did it to attend two classes at the same time, it was very different because she wasn't traveling years back.

_I guess I'd just have to pull through for everyone's sake. _She thought before she fell asleep, intending to rest first before she attempted to change everything.

-a-

When she opened her eyes, she heard whispering.

"Harry? Ron?" She whispered into the dark. _Did I really sleep that long? It was just morning..._

Out of nowhere, her best friends appeared, immediately handing her a Time Turner.

"Hurry," Harry urged. "They're coming."

Before he could say more, they heard footsteps outside and her best friends looked at her with worried expressions before they dived back under the Invisibility Cloak's protective stealth. She was just about to use the Time Turner when she realized that Snape was looking at her from afar. Quickly, she stuffed it under the blanket and tried her best not to look guilty.

"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said as he came closer. "I trust that you have said your goodbyes."

She nodded slowly, concentrating on Snape from the corner of her eyes. He was looking at her with unreadable eyes that seemed so familiar somehow; not familiar in the way that she had seen it for six years but familiar someway else.

"Trust your instincts," Snape said suddenly, before turning his back and exiting the Hospital Wing.

She couldn't imagine how shocked she looked because Dumbledore chuckled even when he was about to expel her.

"You should listen to your professor, Miss Granger," he said. "Good luck then. I'll see you soon."

Her eyes widened. "I don't understand, Professor." _Does he know? Does he know?_ Her mind repeated nervously.

He chuckled. "You always did have a very brilliant mind, Miss Granger," he said in a somewhat wistful tone.

She suddenly felt the impulse to say something, anything. "It's something I need to do. I'm sorry, Professor."

"You shouldn't be." He walked closer to her and handed her a rope that she soon realized was tied down to her trunk at the bottom of the bed. "I have taken the liberty of having your things returned to you. Some of them, I trust, would be of familiarity to you. After all, they are yours, or more precisely, they belong to your family. Use them well and make everything the way it should be." He smiled benignly at her.

She looked uncertainly and wondered how Dumbledore ever found out that they were planning on meddling with time.

"Ah yes, it nearly slipped my mind." His smile never left his face as he reached under her blanket and pulled her Time Turner from her. Her impending protests were postponed when he handed her a small box.

With confusion, she opened it and got a good surprise. "Another Time Turner? I don't understand, Professor. I mean–"

Before she could finish her questions, the Time Turner glowed and engulfed her. Then, she realized that she was traveling through time.


	5. The Light of Awareness

**Author's Note:** I **haven't read book six yet** because of so many factors but I think it'll have not much bearing in this story since Hermione's gone before sixth year really was at its height. But if it does have a bearing, well, I suppose this means this is a bit AU-ish now. Anyway, moving on. **Lots of thanks** to **Rane2920072**, **BlackPaintedWhite **(the exams were horrible! I can't even remember how aspirin can cause Reye's Syndrome! And I mixed up the antihypertensives with each other!), **Blossom1098**, **SilentConfession **(hm, we'll just wait and see if you hit jackpot. Lol. Wouldn't want to spoil the fun this early.), and **Wind-Guardian**.

**Disclaimer: **JKR owns the characters and I am not making money out of this.

**Summary: **When they discovered a supposed murder in Hogwarts some twenty years ago while searching for a link to Sirius, Hermione, plagued by weird dreams, never expected to end up in the past, dealing with many things like prejudice and love. **(SiriusHermione)**

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**CHAPTER 5:** **The Light of Awareness**

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**Twelfth of August 1995**

Hermione tapped her fingers impatiently on top of the table in the kitchen. _When is that the hearing going to end? _She had had enough of the cleaning and had wanted to be alone to think of Harry. "I wonder how Harry is," she asked to no one in particular.

"He'll be alright."

She looked across from her at Sirius who was looking rather distant again. She observed him for a while and came into the conclusion that he may be tired. Lupin had left a while back after he merely stayed for some thoughtful staring at both her and Sirius.

"Do you want something?" She asked, standing up to get a drink for him.

He shook his head. "No. Just sit down."

She sighed and sat down, looking at the table and again wondering about Harry. They were in a peaceful silence for a while and she did not really mind.

"Hermione."

"Yes?" She asked, wondering at the thoughtful look on his face.

"Hermione," he said again. "I've always liked the sound of it."

She wasn't sure what he was on to but she just nodded. "I like it too."

"Why?" He looked at her in an evaluating manner that she found rather odd.

"Because my parents gave it to me."

He nodded. "Just that?"

"Do I need more reason to like what my parents gave me?"

"No, I suppose not." He grinned slightly. "Do you want to dance?"

Hermione looked at him bemusedly.

He seemed wistful somehow. "There used to be many balls I had to attend as a Black. I guess that's what purebloods do best, socialize and think of themselves."

"Not all," she said. "I don't think that's what you do best. Nor do I think that's what Harry's father did best. Besides, even the Weasleys–"

"Let's dance," he said then, standing up and walking around the table and extending a hand at her.

She cringed slightly. "I don't dance."

He shook his head. "Sure you do."

"I meant I can't dance."

He grinned. "Let me be the judge of that." And he pulled her to her feet and whisked her around the kitchen in long sweeping steps.

-a-

**Present Time**

There had been no way for her to determine where she would end up; the Time Turner seemed to have malfunctioned somehow. Perhaps it was damaged all along before Dumbledore gave it to her; he couldn't have known as it was in the box.

After so much spinning of events around her – they were too fast for her to really see – she found herself appearing in the middle of the air, some ten feet high, and falling down so quickly that she wasn't able to brace herself for the impact of the fall.

A loud thud was heard as she hit the ground and she barely had time to reorient herself with her surroundings as something swooped down at her and hit her rather brutally. She felt the cut on her shoulder and she looked up to realize that the Whomping Willow was attacking her.

As fast as she could, she reached for her pocket and realized that she was wearing the hospital issued clothing. Her wand was nowhere. She immediately started to scramble away but had unfortunately not managed to dodge an attack that struck her perfectly on her back as she turned away. She stumbled on the ground but her instincts to survive made her try to crawl away in her roughed up state and ignore every painful cut that was added to her battered body.

But then, she heard someone stunning the rampaging tree. In relief and exhaustion, she allowed her body to collapse on the ground. Hurried footsteps approached her but she paid no heed to the sound. It was so tempting to sleep even just for a few minutes. However, just as her eyes were closing, she felt herself being yanked up harshly. She groaned involuntarily at the pain and closed her eyes tightly, trying to ignore everything.

A few minutes later and she noticed that she was, in actuality, pressed to something warm and hard and that she was being moved at a fast pace. Cracking her eyes open, she peered up and saw that someone was carrying her, his jaw clenched. She moved in his arms and tried to get a better view of him but he held her tighter and ran even faster. No doubt he thought that she was dying.

Her head began to pound and her surroundings started to spin. She clutched at the fabric covering his chest and felt him slow down before finally stopping. Peering up again, she finally saw his face as he was now looking down at her.

The last thing she remembered in the midst of her splitting headache and dizziness was that he looked too familiar for comfort; he had grey eyes.

-a-

_The sun was shining brightly and there were plenty of people outside, enjoying the warmth. She sighed and walked towards the Great Hall, wanting to get herself something to eat; people were always telling her that she was too thin._

_She walked slowly, her shoes in one hand and her other hand grazing the rough stone wall. A small smile was playing on her lips; she rarely was this happy. But today, it just felt nice to wake up and not see anyone sneering at her._

"_My, my," a female voice said. "Aren't we a bit too primitive to walk around without shoes?"_

_She sighed and was about to stop when she felt an arm go around her shoulder, urging her to continue walking. She was surprised as she looked up and found one of the last persons she expected. "I_–_"_

"_Shut up and continue walking," he hissed, urging her to go even faster with his hurried steps._

_There was laughter from behind them; its sound was disturbing that the hair on her arms stood._

"_Playing hero, aren't we? Always the Gryffindor. How wretched."_

_The arm around her tightened and she looked up to see his jaw tighten. He was on the verge of losing his temper and she was sure he'd hex someone; she'd get him in trouble._

"_Lost your tongue?"_

_He didn't say anything but she could sense the growing tension in his body by the way his jaws clenched and by the way he was holding her tighter._

"_Go; she only wants to talk to me," she said softly, looking at him._

_His eyes were still fixed ahead and his hold did not loosen._

"_I_–_"_

"_Just shut up and walk," he snapped in a voice only audible enough for the two of them._

-a-

"She's still asleep."

"I see. Perhaps I had misjudged her waking once more."

"No. I think she's just too tired. Apart from her injuries, she had shown great signs of stress."

She could hear familiar voices and she realized with a start that it was Dumbledore's and Madam Pomfrey's. Hastily, she opened her eyes and saw to her irritation that she was in the Hospital Wing once more. Her heart began to thump at a faster rate. Did she get the right time? Did it work?

"I see she has awakened," Dumbledore said, peering at her through his half-moon glasses.

Madam Pomfrey rushed towards her and began to check on her. Hermione stared at Dumbledore and wondered if her eyes were working properly. He looked younger to her.

"Professor."

He smiled at her, looking please at the acknowledgement. "Welcome back to Hogwarts."

Her eyes widened at the implication. She failed, hadn't she? She was still at her own time and had only somewhat Apparated within the Whomping Willow's reach.

"Do you want to tell us about what happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

She closed her eyes to prevent herself from crying in her desperation at her failure. Of all the things to fail, it just had to be something that would matter most – saving many people's lives.

"Perhaps I should return when you are well enough…"

She didn't bother to listen to whatever Dumbledore was saying; she was just eager to be alone.

-a-

"She's back," he muttered, his eyes fixed grimly ahead as they strode towards the Great Hall.

James Potter, a boy with messy raven hair, was in the middle of drinking the butterbeer they had sneaked in from their latest sneaking conquest to Hogsmeade when he heard what his best friend said. His reaction was to cough fitfully. "What?"

"She's back," Sirius Black repeated.

James stopped walking and pulled his best friend to a stop. "Hold it. Have you been having another one of your insane guilt trips? Did the latest girl you dated somewhat mentioned something about–"

"I'm telling you," Sirius said with irritation. "She's back."

"Okay," James said slowly as if talking to a child on the verge of a temper tantrum. "I think I saw one Ravenclaw eyeing you–"

Sirius looked annoyed as he pulled James towards the Hospital Wing. "Two weeks ago, do you remember it?"

"Of course I do! You stood Remus, Peter, and I up."

"I saw the Whomping Willow attacking someone and I brought her to the Hospital Wing. And I'm telling you–"

"Padfoot," James said in a resigned voice. "I think you promised a girl a snogging session–"

"I shall see her tomorrow perhaps?"

They both stopped and looked on ahead as Madam Pomfrey gave Dumbledore a nod before going back inside the infirmary. The Headmaster smiled and turned away, walking towards their direction.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling knowingly at the two boys.

"We were just taking a stroll," James said, pulling his arm free from his best friend's hold.

"Of course," said Dumbledore but he smiled wider. "Thank you for bringing her here, Mr. Black." And he walked away, his eyes still twinkling as if he knew what was going on in their minds.

James pulled out his wand and aimed it at the butterbeer container he had been carrying around behind his back while being pulled along, intending on transfiguring it to dust. "What is _really _going on, Padfoot?

His tone was casual but Sirius knew that James was probably cooking something up in his mind.

"It's like I told you," Sirius answered dully. "Getting denser by the day, aren't you mate? Evans sure does great hypnotism."

James scowled. "Well, if I didn't know any better–"

He was cut off as Sirius pulled him away from the Hospital Wing and towards the Gryffindor Tower. "We'll sneak in later tonight."

-a-

"Don't do that!"

"Shhh…"

Hermione stirred in her sleep. _Honestly, if Harry snuck our of the dormitories again and brought Ron along too just to make this much noise, I will personally push them off the stairs,_ she ranted, still half-asleep yet drifting closer to consciousness.

When she opened her eyes, it was dark and for a moment, she thought that she was still dreaming. Until she remembered that she was in the Hospital Wing, having failed her attempt to go to their fourth year.

"Harry," she began to scold, although her voice was so choked up that she barely could understand it. "Potter," she finished in a far better audible voice.

Everything became quiet and she frowned. But then, Madam Pomfrey's voice came drifting out of her office and she thought she saw a mass of raven hair following someone out of the Hospital Wing.

_Boys, honestly!_

-a-

Remus' eyes widened slightly and he put his book aside. He looked suspicious. "Are you certain?"

"We saw her," James said. "And she called me Potter. Seems strange though. Potter?"

Peter looked confused, his chubby face scrunched up slightly. "Doesn't she call everyone with a Mister or a Miss?"

"She does," said Remus, looking as if he was thinking about something. "She does."

Sirius ran a hand through his now messy hair and collapsed on his bed. "We come to school two weeks earlier than everybody to have fun and just a week into it, she just had to lose her sanity and walk up to the Whomping Willow. And since a week since school started up is almost over, I'm sure by next week everyone would know that she's here. Just great. She comes back strange and it's entirely my fault."

James laughed. "Look on the bright side, Padfoot. Maybe the Whomping Willow hit her hard enough to change her. You can't actually think that she'd change because of some words from other people."

Peter followed James in laughing but Remus merely shook his head, now looking thoughtful as ever.

-a-

She had been stuck there for days, Dumbledore never even coming back. She was thankful for that to some extent, after all, she did not want to be expelled soon. But her best friends were not even visiting her that she was absolutely about to lose her sanity.

Did the staff know of Harry and Ron's sneaking about, too?

_One way to find out_, she thought as she swung her legs to the side and carefully got out of bed.

As quietly as she could, she walked out of the Hospital Wing and headed for the Gryffindor Tower. It was still in the middle of the morning and she did not doubt that the students were in their respective classrooms. Somehow, after all that has happened, she did not feel excited about classes. Was that because she subconsciously accepted that she would be expelled? She could not be certain, but as she walked resolutely towards her destination, all she could think about was Harry and Ron.

-a-

Sirius ran as fast as he could. He was sure as the sun rose every morning that McGonagall would give them detentions for running late… again. And it was only the start of the second week of school. "James, hurry up would you?"

James grinned and ran after his best friend. "Ready to quit detentions?"

He grinned back, looking at James while running. "Not really. I just had this whole week booked on something rather important."

The other boy pretended to think. "Hm, like snogging different girls for instance?"

Sirius never got the chance to answer because when he turned around the corner, he collided with someone.

-a-

Hermione just rounded the corner when someone knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling on the floor some few feet away. The wind got knocked out of her lungs and she closed her eyes as pain assaulted her skull.

_Someone is definitely wishing for my early death._

"Are you alright?"

She was pulled to her feet and she looked up to see a familiar mass of messy raven hair. "Harry!" And she hugged him before any second passed. She was just too relieved to see a familiar face that she knew she could trust. "I was just heading to the Gryffindor Tower."

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Another voice asked with irritation.

She pulled away and saw that a boy with black hair and grey eyes were dusting himself while approaching them. He looked familiar…

"Well, James?"

Harry extricated himself from her and stepped away that she felt a surge of irritation. Was he ashamed of her because she was a soon-to-be-expelled student?

She looked at him and glared. "Harry! Who is this? Where is Ron? And what are you doing out of classes?"

Harry looked at her with confusion and held up his hands. "I know you're injured but what are you talking about? … And just to remind you, I'm _not _Harry, whoever that is."

"Of course you are," she insisted, glaring at him for a while until she realized that this Harry did not have green eyes. In fact, he had hazel-colored ones… _Oh my_–"I have to talk to Professor Dumbledore," she said in a desperate voice and she began to walk away, holding her aching head with one hand while grimacing at the mess she did not want to think about. Her skull was burning from the physical damage of the fall and was also being plagued by what _this_ mess could mean.

"Wait a minute," Harry – no, Harry's look-alike – called at her, jogging after her and pulling on her arm. "What–"

"Mister Potter!"

They froze and looked ahead to see a scowling Minerva McGonagall glaring at them.

"Professor," Hermione said with relief that soon turned to horror when she realized that McGonagall looked younger. "Oh Merlin," she uttered in horror. And she did the most undignified way of running away from the mess – she fainted.

-a-

"Very convenient, huh? This just had to be the nearest place to bring her in."

"She _was _heading here, James. Would you care to tell me why?" Suspicion was imminent in his voice. "Well? Are you two…?"

Hermione gritted her teeth angrily. Her head was throbbing and some people were just too dense to her plight that they just _had_ to argue near her.

"Of course not!"

"So why did she practically jump on you?"

"Hey, are you jealous that I'm better-looking than you?"

"Hardly. I dated more girls."

She opened her eyes and glared. "Oh honestly I don't care if you dated boys!" She said loudly that the two arguing boys looked at her. "Could you both just _please _go away!"

The boy she was looking directly into frowned and crossed his arms in a familiar way that her eyes widened. She knew those features, had seen them in their diminished state. This was Sirius Black in his teenage years! She looked at the boy's companion – Harry's look-alike who'd she'd recognized earlier enough to make her panic and faint in front of McGonagall thereafter.

"Oh please, please, please," she groaned and covered her eyes with her hands in a frustrated manner. "This is just a dream! I am definitely not here!"

"I think she just officially lost it."

She pulled her hands away and glared at Harry – no, James. And again the weight of the situation dawned on her. Scrambling up and nearly falling off the couch in the process, she shoved past them and headed for the portrait hole.

"Where are you going?"

She ignored Sirius and walked out of the common room; she had to talk to Dumbledore before she changed something here and manage to distort her future beyond recognition.


End file.
